How Pornography Harms by John D. Foubert Ph.D

Author:John D. Foubert Ph.D. [John D. Foubert, Ph.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781489710222
Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
Published: 2016-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

Seeing Women as Objects

The root of many acts of violence, including sexual violence, involves a process where an individual sees another person as more of an object than a human. To study this process, a research team in the Netherlands studied the relationship between adolescents looking at pornography and whether they believed women were objects, instead of people. They found that the more boys and girls viewed pornography, the more they believed that females are sex objects.145 146

Bob, a 23-year-old athletic-looking Native American male college student I interviewed, describes this process of seeing women as objects. He believes that his use of pornography about every other day is an addiction. After I interviewed him, he told me that I was the only person with whom he has ever talked about his addiction. He first started looking at pornography at age 11 when his cousin was 15 and would put it on their television. His cousin watched at least once a day, often twice.

“I tried to leave a lot because it was kinda strange, so in a week I’d watch it 2 or 3 times. It was, like, disgusting to me. It still is disgusting to me. It kind of affects me today. I don’t like doin’ it but I still, kind of, like, watch it. It is kinda like an addiction. Yeah. I pretty much watch it 2 or 3 times a week still since age 14.”

Part of Bob’s experience watching pornography at age 11 was atypical. While an older relative did introduce it to him (a typical experience), that is not all his relative showed him.

“He masturbated right in front of me. It was strange. Then it made me curious because I was young and I was like, ‘What is he doing’ and everything and eventually, I started doing that, but usually not with him in the room. I wasn’t, I was still young, so I was still shy and insecure about everything so I didn’t want to be around him when it happened … … I thought it was gross, I didn’t know what he was doing at the time. I don’t really know how to explain in words how it felt at the time because I just can’t, I can’t remember what I was thinking or how I felt at the time because it made me really uncomfortable …”

Bob reported that after the first time he saw pornography, he changed.

“Vulgar thoughts happened to me the first time I saw it. I started thinking of women in a different way, as in sexual objects kind of. I see them as a sexual object like someone you want to have sex with, rather than someone you want to date.”

Bob’s experience helps to demonstrate how older boys can influence younger boys, and lead them in a direction that is away from the will of God and into behaviors that will undermine a healthy sexuality in the future.

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